Broad goal in Middle East: Support moderate forces

6:24 PM,
Jun. 16, 2013

Written by

David
Ignatius

What is America's strategy in the Middle East? That question is more urgent as the Obama administration finally moves to arm the Syrian opposition. The U.S. needs a framework that connects its policy in Syria with what's happening in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey and elsewhere in the region.

The administration's specific rationale for arming the rebels is that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons. But crusades against weapons of mass destruction have a bad history in the Middle East, as we remember from Iraq.